ID Corner: Remdesivir in the Treatment of Hospitalized Patients with COVID-19: Evolution of Use Over the Course of the Pandemic
by Lauren N. Nevinski, PharmD, Lynne Fehrenbacher, PharmD, BCPS-AQ ID, Thomas J Dilworth, PharmD, BCPS-AQ ID
"Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, significant effort has been directed towards optimizing pharmacologic treatment for patients hospitalized with SARS-CoV-2. Over the course of the past year, several drug classes have been used with limited success in an attempt to treat COVID-19. The World Health Organization (WHO) treatment guidelines have evolved based on ongoing clinical trials with various agents, including, but not limited to, remdesivir (Veklury®, Gilead). A continued debate about using remdesivir has been defining which group of hospitalized patients, as categorized by the WHO COVID-19 disease severity ordinals (Table 1), are likely to benefit the most given the varying results published from clinical evidence.1 An ordinal, or ordinal number, defines an individual’s position or category in a list, to make generalized interpretation easier in clinical studies."
Keywords: Remdesivir, RNA, Viral, Alanine Transaminase, COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, RNA-Dependent RNA Polymerase, Pharmaceutical Preparations, Viral Load, Adenosine Triphosphate, Pandemics, United States Food and Drug Administration, Double-Blind Method, COVID-19 drug treatment, Respiration, Artificial, Length of Stay, Partial Pressure, Virus Replication, Contraindications, World Health Organization, Severity of Illness Index
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2021 September/October Table of Contents
"Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, significant effort has been directed towards optimizing pharmacologic treatment for patients hospitalized with SARS-CoV-2. Over the course of the past year, several drug classes have been used with limited success in an attempt to treat COVID-19. The World Health Organization (WHO) treatment guidelines have evolved based on ongoing clinical trials with various agents, including, but not limited to, remdesivir (Veklury®, Gilead). A continued debate about using remdesivir has been defining which group of hospitalized patients, as categorized by the WHO COVID-19 disease severity ordinals (Table 1), are likely to benefit the most given the varying results published from clinical evidence.1 An ordinal, or ordinal number, defines an individual’s position or category in a list, to make generalized interpretation easier in clinical studies."
Keywords: Remdesivir, RNA, Viral, Alanine Transaminase, COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, RNA-Dependent RNA Polymerase, Pharmaceutical Preparations, Viral Load, Adenosine Triphosphate, Pandemics, United States Food and Drug Administration, Double-Blind Method, COVID-19 drug treatment, Respiration, Artificial, Length of Stay, Partial Pressure, Virus Replication, Contraindications, World Health Organization, Severity of Illness Index
Download PDF
2021 September/October Table of Contents